Archive for April, 2013

If RI were a little bigger (okay, a lot bigger), it could be the crony capital capitol of the world. Because we got the crony part down cold. I mean, when it comes to sucking up to big money, we really suck.

Or maybe you’re a film star who wants to promote parent trigger laws designed to destroy public schools and usher in the corporate takeover of education? Please, step up to the mic!

No? Perhaps you prefer to stay in the shadows and help run the whole racket? Oh, that’s great! See, we need someone to replace one of our cronies… Er, this Corso fella. Don’t get me wrong, he’s fantastic at what he does. Convincing the state to give huge tax credits away to Hollywood producers so they can make their movies here was no easy task. I’m surprised he didn’t win an Oscar for pretending that it would be good for the local economy. It’s just, I don’t know, now that he’s been exposed, something doesn’t feel right. The whole crony capitalist gig seems kinda slimy all of a sudden. It was so much better when those of us “in the club” were the only ones who knew we were members.

The next thing you know, we’ll start getting invited to those living room conversations about how government and business are too chummy. Well, I sure as hell ain’t talking! Not without 75 million dollars and a film crew.

As the handful of regular Bull Raker readers already know, we chose to send our daughter to private school in part to avoid what we felt was the pending collapse of the Bristol-Warren public school system. The district is in the process of losing close to a million dollars in state aid each year for 10 years, starting when Quinn entered kindergarten. After fighting about as hard as we could (short of the physical kind of fighting) and being unable to convince enough neighbors to push back against the attack on public education, we decided to send her to a school that was less vulnerable to corporate education reform… you know, the type of place where corporate education reformers send their kids!

It should come as no surprise then to learn that some of the school’s alumni, parents and trustees are Teach For America – Rhode Island supporters, including a pair of venture capitalists and the executive director of TFA-RI herself. Looks like we have our work cut out for us!